SA Year 2: Making it Count

by Maggie Sutton

@maggie_sutton

These past two weeks, I have hit the ground running almost as soon as I returned to the University of Florida from my NODA internship. The calendar has already started to fill up with work, extra curricular activities, meetings, and classes.

Today, though, I made sure to take a few minutes to reflect on what I want out of my second and final year of graduate school at the University of Florida.

I have three categories of goals: academic, career, and personal. I want to finish out my last year with a strong grade point average. I want to continue to take on new projects at work, present at regional conferences, and begin to lay the groundwork for my future. But it’s the last set – my personal goals – that I find myself really wanting to focus on.

You see, after a long day of orientation this past Saturday, myself and two of my friends in my cohort were struck with an immovable craving for Dairy Queen. In fact, we were positive we simply could not continue on if we did not have Mini Blizzards as soon as possible. So at 11:30 p.m., we piled up in my friend Jill’s car and headed to Dairy Queen, talking and laughing the whole way there and back.

It’s moments like those – the simple joy of being with my friends – that I want to maximize the most this year. After we graduate and find careers, my second year cohort will be spread out all over the country, and who knows when we’ll have Dairy Queen runs together like this again.

So, yes, I have goals. I have plans for this year. I have things I want to accomplish. The way I’m going to make really going to make this year count, though, is to cherish every moment – to not let life, busy work schedules, piles of coursework, get in the way of spending one last year together with my friends and colleagues.